There is great excitement amongst the members of IBBY Australia, as we extend our congratulations to Shaun Tan winner of this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the largest award for children’s and young adult literature with a prize of five million Swedish krona.

As the jury said: “Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age. Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.”

Like this:

Related

One Response

Shan is extraordinary and the writing community is thrilled at his deserved success.

WA writing community is even more thrilled. I am in WA now for the All Sainst Perth festival. Frane Lessac, Mark Greenwood, Dianne Wolfer and I were – in a hot tub after the Fremantle Children’s Lit meeting and we raised our glasses to toast Shan.